Information for Philosophy Job Applicants

Claremont McKenna College is a private liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. For the past four years, we have been ranked eleventh overall among the nation's 266 liberal arts college as measured by U.S. News & World Report. The college has top-tier students and a serious commitment to scholarship.

Scholarly Community: One of the most attractive things about Claremont McKenna College is that it is part of a six-college consortium: five undergraduate liberal arts colleges (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pitzer, and Harvey-Mudd) and Claremont Graduate University. These colleges are physically contiguous, so your colleagues at other colleges are at most a five-minute walk away. Effectively, then, each of us has about 20 colleagues in philosophy, so we combine the faculty size of a large research university and the intimacy of a small liberal-arts college. There is more information about the five-college resources here.

Scholarship: Both the College and the Department of philosophy are committed to serious scholarship. You can get an idea of our research interests and publication records by looking at the faculty page. Current faculty have published in such journals as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Ethics, The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophers’ Imprint, Philosophical Studies, Mind, The Journal of the History of Philosophy, Philosophical Quarterly, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, and American Philosophical Quarterly; we have published books with Oxford University Press.

Teaching: At Claremont McKenna faculty are given the opportunity to for serious engagement with their students. The teaching load is 2-2, courses are almost always capped at 19, and many classes are even smaller. Our students are among the best in the nation. 85% are in the top 10% of their graduating class, and their median SAT scores are 1410.

Location: The town of Claremont is close to downtown Los Angeles but far enough east that it doesn't suffer from the problems (e.g., traffic problems) of a large city. Claremont itself is a pleasant college town. The thing people like least is the smog and accompanying heat, which for about a month each summer reaches the 100's. (Though without humidity.) The town has plenty of benefits that compensate for the heat. You enjoy the ability to travel to Los Angeles for major cultural sites such as the many Los Angeles art museums, the philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Opera. The town is also good for people who love the outdoors, since we are situated at the base of a 10,000 foot mountain with wonderful hiking. The best thing about the location may be the almost-constant California sunshine.